Sun Number and digital marketing team Wave Solar announced today that 84 million homes on Zillow now include a Sun Number score, which shows the potential solar generation of the home. This information helps millions of homeowners understand their options for going solar.
“Home sellers and buyers that have not had Sun Number scores previously have been contacting us asking how they can get a Sun Number score for their home,” said David Herrmann CEO of Sun Number. “The expansion of Sun Number scores to 84 million residential buildings on Zillow means many of those homeowners, sellers, and buyers have a simple way to access this useful information.”
Sun Number uses multiple datasets to analyze an individual home’s solar potential, taking into account the angle of the roof, the direction the home is facing, the solar radiation potential of the roof, and local electricity rates. Sun Number’s algorithm ultimately assigns a score to the home between 0 and 100, estimating how much the homeowner would stand to benefit if they went solar.
“This data is important for the millions of people participating in the U.S. market shift toward solar energy,” said Colin James Walsh, CEO of Wave Solar. “With the Sun Number scores on America’s most popular real estate site, homeowners will have more data to make an informed decision, and solar installers will see even more interest in their product.”
The Sun Number score is included on 84 million homes on Zillow under the “Utilities, Green Energy” section of the page. Sun Number scores were first added to millions of homes on Zillow in August of 2016 and the 84 million homes on Zillow are live now, including a majority of homes for the first time.
“We are very proud of our proprietary scoring system, which was developed as part of the Department of Energy’s SunShot initiative,” added Herrmann, “By bringing these different solar-relevant datasets together into one easy-to-understand score, we allow homeowners to see if they should be exploring solar as an option for their home.”
How to Find SunNumber on a Zillow listing:
- Go to a home listing on Zillow.com
- Click “See More Facts and Features”
- If listing is one of 84 million, SunNumber will be listed under “Utilities – Green Energy”
News item from Wave Solar
Loralee Morrow says
The series of clicks listed above does not result in any information regarding a “sun number.” Not sure what happened there. If you go to zillow.com, there is no “see other facts and features” and a search for that or a sun numbers results in no hits.
Rick Williams says
Kind of useless info. Still don’t understand what a sun number is, How it is determined or at what threshold solar makes smart sense. What I did get from the article is that it is a win for companies as there is an item that sounds really important and scientifically derived that really isnt. Sounds like another marketing tactic to try and separate people from their money through smoke a d mirrors.
dawn gill says
I’m interested to buy a house yet this particular house was not assigned a sun number. How do I find out what it’s solar potential is before making an offer?
Anon says
Google project sunroof